Supreme Court Deals Devastating Blow to Employee Rights

May 29, 2018

On Monday, May 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States sealed the fate of many low income hourly employees by ruling that companies can require employees to preemptively sign away their rights to bring class action claims against their employers. The decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis will make it particularly difficult for employees to band together as victims of wage theft, effectively precluding many of those employees from meaningful recovery. SCOTUS Green-Lights Class Action Waivers.

The decision has already had a dramatic impact on pending class action litigation. Within a matter of days of the ruling, Chipotle moved to knock approximately 3,000 employees out of an approximate 10,000 employee wage and hour class action currently pending against the fast food conglomerate. Chipotle claims that the 3,000 employees in question have preemptively waived their rights to bring class action claims against the company because those employees signed class action waivers before they began working. In that case, Chipotle has been accused of systemically forcing hourly workers to work off the clock and uncompensated. Chipotle Wage and Hour Violations.

If Chipotle is successful in moving the Court to follow the Epic decision, the 3,000 employees in question will be forced to individually pursue claims in arbitration. Arbitration is a less than ideal forum for the adjudication of wage and hour claims where an individual claim in controversy can be quite small. Prohibitive cost coupled with the inability to find an attorney willing to dedicate the time and attention to each of these claims will likely mean that many employees will suffer illegal wage loss for which there is no meaningful recovery. Companies, like Chipotle, will in turn benefit from free labor and lack of consequence.

Many women in the U.S. still do not receive paid time off for maternity leave. Unless you work for a company that voluntarily offers it or live in one of the three states that requires it, paid maternity leave does not exist. The Family and Medical Leave Act grants 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year; however, this law only applies to full-time employees at companies larger than 50 employees. This means that only about half of Americans are covered by the FMLA.

Paid leave is another issue. Only 12% of Americans have access to paid leave according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as outlined in Bloomberg.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) in 2013 introduced the Family Act, which would make employers offer new parents three month paid leave at 66% salary; however, the bill has been stalled. The current generation graduating from college does not experience the pay gap older generations have experienced. The discrepancy grows as they get older and do not advance at the same pace as their male counterparts. And, this seems to happen as women start to have children.

According to the U.N., the U.S. and Papua New Guinea are the only two countries in the world that don't have some form of legally mandated partially paid time off. If you or anyone you know feels you have been discriminated against due to pregnancy or not being allowed to take your full maternity leave, please contact us today.